Reds' title formula

Saturday 8 December 2001 19.26 EST
First published on Saturday 8 December 2001 19.26 EST

Liverpool are not exactly playing like champions at the moment but they are building up a tidy lead at the top of the Premiership.

This was a workmanlike performance, no more, with two well-taken goals standing out against a background of unmemorable endeavour, but the net result was three points in the bag without too much drama. How Manchester United must wish they could rediscover that formula.

Middlesbrough must have felt lucky when they saw Emile Heskey and Steven Gerrard had been left out of the starting line-up, but this was simply not their day. First of all they became only the second team all season to have to face Jari Litmanen from the kick off, and the Finn's laser-like distribution frequently had the visiting defence looking over their shoulders just in time to see another unmarked player accepting the ball.

Then Boro lost their goalkeeper barely 15 minutes into the game. Mark Crossley came out to prevent Gary McAllister reaching Michael Owen's hopeful cross from the left and departed on a stretcher with a shoulder injury after what seemed an innocuous collision. With Mark Schwarzer injured on World Cup duty, third-choice goalkeeper Marlon Beresford came on for his first appearance of the season, and within nine minutes was an interested bystander as an unstoppable shot from Owen found its target from the edge of the area.

As the game approached the half-hour mark neither side had managed to create a chance worthy of the name, but just as Beresford was settling down after dealing with his first corner and handling the ball a couple of times, Owen ran on to Patrik Berger's pass and unleashed a shot that the former Burnley goalkeeper could hardly have seen, let alone saved.

Beresford recovered with a routine stop when Didi Hamann tried his luck from outside the area four minutes later, before the game reverted to defensive stalemate plus Litmanen. One diagonal pass over his shoulder played Danny Murphy into such an ocean of space behind Boro's lines that even the Liverpool winger was too surprised to do much about it, but Berger knew exactly what to do when Litmanen found him with a sharp pull-back on the stroke of half time.

At first it looked as if Litmanen had wasted an attacking opportunity by passing a good 20 yards backwards from a position on the right, but Berger had time to control the ball, look up and beat Beresford a second time from a couple of yards further out than Owen.

In throwing on both his remaining substitutes at half time, Steve McClaren withdrew the ineffective Szilard Nemeth but kept on Alen Boksic, who had shown touches of skill including a memorable nutmeg on Jamie Carragher without ever looking threatening.

The Croatian's chance came a couple of minutes after the restart, but Jerzy Dudek reacted well to keep out his low shot by his left-hand post.

That was just about all Boro managed by way of response, although Gareth Southgate went close with a deflected shot in the middle of a succession of corners in the last 10 minutes. They competed well in most areas of the field and would have been worth a draw had the home strikers not been in such clinical form, but they never really looked like getting back on terms once Owen had demonstrated Liverpool were both willing and able to claim a win.

At one stage in the second period, Liverpool had so much of the ball it was embarrassing, and one move ended with Berger firing over from the edge of the box on 60 minutes.

Colin Cooper was booked for bringing down Riise on the left. But that did not discourage the Norwegian, who stormed forward again to fire in a swirling, low drive that forced Beresford into a good save to his right. Boro could barely get the ball, and Liverpool were content to spin it around constantly.

Heskey made an appearance for the last few minutes, raising small hopes of a final flourish, but there was no such luck for those among the 43,674 still awake.

The second half almost died of boredom, but, after spending 10 years trying all they know to win a title, this could be the season Liverpool do it in their sleep.